Prop37: Postmortem and Next Steps

The 47-Million-Dollar COVERUP

It cost the GMO ‘Syndicate’ (i.e.: prime players such as Monsanto, DuPont, Bayer, Dow and food-processors such as Kraft, Nestle, Coca-Cola, etc.), approximately $47-million to protect us from knowing whether or not the food we consume may contain its patented, experimental, genetically modified (GM) secret-sauce, against our wills.

It is socially oppressive, demeaning and totally inappropriate for GM-food producers to command us to basically “shut up and eat”… It’s a slap in the face of all intelligent, concerned consumers who demand to know what they and their families are eating.

One has to wonder how much worse these frankenfoods really are (than we already suspect), such that the GMO Industry has to spend $47,000,000 to keep it secret.

Still too many unknowns to let this ride

As described in our previous blog1, there are still far too many unknowns, to let this arrogant industry simply have its way.

GMOs and the disease explosion; are there links?

Is there a connection between the wide proliferation of GM-foods and the explosion in occurrences of diseases such as childhood invasive cancers, autism spectrum disorders and the vast range of digestive diseases?

The US National Cancer Institute (NCI) reports that the number of children diagnosed with all forms of invasive cancer in the year 2004 showed a 28.6% increase, compared with those in 1975 (from 11.5 cases per 100,000 children to 14.8 per 100,000)2. Why?

Autism and autistic spectrum disorders in children, in recent years have risen epidemically. The Nov-Dec, 2004 issue of Public Health Reports states that, “Reported rates of autism in the United States increased from < 3 per 10,000 children in the 1970s to > 30 per 10,000 children in the 1990s, a 10-fold increase.”3 Why? The paper concludes that “…the rising incidence of autism should be a matter of urgent public concern.”

The statistics on increases in digestive disorders are also alarming. Why?Digestive Diseases News Spring/Summer 2009 published, The Burden of Digestive Diseases in the United States, a report sponsored by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).4 It reports that:

Deaths from gastrointestinal infections more than tripled between 1979 and 2004.

Ambulatory care visits for inflammatory bowel disease between 1979 and 2004 increased by almost 40 percent.

Until we have conclusive independent research answers to the possible connections between the GMO-adulteration of foods and the explosion of disease conditions, any States that continue to allow ongoing cloaked foisting of such products upon its citizens, are subjecting their entire populations to the status of lab rats.

The American Academy of Environmental Medicine (AAEM) is calling for a “moratorium on GM food, implementation of immediate long term independent safety testing, and labeling of GM foods, which is necessary for the health and safety of consumers”. 5

The current GMO testing and approvals process, on the very face of it, is a closed “inside job”. While the GMO Syndicate is obliged to report its test results to the FDA, the food safety agency has allowed the GMO Syndicate to carry out its own, private testing, and worse yet, has given the industry a blank cheque to award itself its own safety approvals, thus clearing the products for market. Where is the independent peer-reviewed scrutiny? Does this approval protocol not have the appearance of a scientifically corrupt process?

The longest study period that the GMO industry has reportedly used for its safety approvals is a mere 90 days.6

The alarming results of the first independent two-year GMO corn-fed rat study shows a completely different story about the potential risks of long term human exposure to GM-foods.

A full report of this study, and additional background can be found at the link below:

Where is our food-safety-protector, the FDA, in all of this? Well, it appears that the situation became somewhat more conflicted when President Obama appointed Michael Taylor, a VP of Monsanto, as US food safety czar at the FDA.7 Many citizens who are aware of this conflict with the public interest have been demanding Taylor’s removal from the FDA, but so far have not met with success.8

We seem to be on out own, folks!

Are there solutions to the GMO-labeling impasse?

The YES vote lost by the narrow margin of 3%. To Californians and to others across the country who support honest disclosure, Prop37 was only the opening salvo on something that should have been nipped in the bud years earlier.

There are enough informed consumers that are incensed by the misrepresentations and $47-million spent by the GMO Industry, to withhold the information that we as consumers need to make critical healthful informed food-choices we feel are necessary to protect our growing families.13

It somehow seems unconstitutional for the GMO syndicate to obstruct our free-will choice and right to obtain information on what we are ingesting.9

Must we the people have to launch a torrent of Class Action suits, simply to gain access to basic information about what’s in our food? If that’s has to be done, then we must begin it.

Consumers must also begin demanding a moratorium on GM foods until long term independent safety testing, as well as labelling, are both fulfilled, as the AAEM calls for.5

Thirdly, it’s now up to consumers, in their own interest, to begin boycotting the products we know or suspect may have GMOs in them. That may cause temporary inconvenience to our eating habits until satisfactory NON-GMO products are found. But it also puts immense pressure upon the food (and food snack) industry to say, “Hey, buy my products, because they’re GMO-FREE!”

The next step in successfully beating the GMO-Syndicate, is to insist that our new food suppliers immediately commence certification processes so that they can boast on their labels that they have been genuinely certified “NON-GMO” through a reputable certification agency.

Thankfully, some agencies are beginning to work with honest food producers to achieve this new standard of disclosure, and will ultimately be winners for doing it.10, 11, 14

The starting pistol for self-determinative action on the part of consumers, was fired on November 6th, when the GMO Industry successfully squelched the YES vote on Prop. 37. We consumers may have lost the battle of Prop37, but with the aggregate force of our individual actions, with the use of our wallets, and by clearly speaking out, we most certainly can win the war.12, 15, 16, 17